Testbed Cases: MILAGRO Data Policy

One of the objectives of the Aerosol Modeling Testbed is to increase the use of measurements collected from multi-agency field campaigns by the scientific community. The MILAGRO measurements, collected during March 2006, were supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and several Mexican universities and agencies. All data is now publically available as stated in the MILAGRO Data Policy and Management Plan; however, users should read and follow the plan's guidelines.

As described in our data document, we have processed the data files with a wide range of formats that reside in several archives into a common format more suitable for use by modelers. We have also implemented a data structure that groups the measurements into similar types. Some data points that are clearly bad (outside the range of expected values) have been flagged and in these instances backup files have been created that contain the original data. Users should be aware that no additional quality assurance has been performed on the data.

The MILAGRO data set for the Aerosol Modeling Testbed also contains measurements from operational monitoring networks and from a few university investigators not officially part of MILAGRO. Measurements from some "research-grade" instrumentation have yet to be included as well.

Users that have obtained the MILAGRO data set from the Aerosol Modeling Testbed are encouraged to:

Consult the original data files and/or contact the principal investigator regarding data quality, especially if the data was obtained from a "research-grade" instrument

Offer co-authorship to principal investigators of data used in a journal article, especially if the data was a key component of the paper

Acknowledge the supporting agencies and the principal investigators accurately in any journal articles and conference proceedings that use MILAGRO data

Not distribute the MILAGRO data set to other groups - we would like to keep track of scientists using the data set prepared for the Aerosol Modeling Testbed